Educational Software Cooperative 4

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Text File | 1996-01-31 | 17.4 KB | 436 lines

Command line options: The "command line" refers to what was typed at the DOS prompt to start the Create A Quiz program. For example, if your Create A Quiz disk is located in drive A:, your screen should display an "A>" prompt. When you type the letters "QUIZ" before you press the [ENTER] key, you are at the "command line". Additional text can be appended to the command line after the key word "QUIZ" that will instruct Create A Quiz to perform certain functions not available through the menu selections. Please note that the following options are NOT available in the "Lite" version of Create A Quiz. Command line options are only available in the full-featured Teacher's and Student's versions. QUIZ filename.QZ If a name of an existing .QZ file is added on the command line after the key word "QUIZ", then that .QZ file will be automatically presented to the user once the program starts. In such cases the "Main Menu" will be skipped, and the student will be greeted with a prompt to enter his name, followed by the quiz. In the above example replace the word "filename" with the actual name of the quiz you wish to use. If your quiz is called "MATH.QZ" then you must enter "QUIZ MATH.QZ" on the command line before running the program. Command line instructions can be combined or placed in any order. In other words, the following command line instructions are all acceptable: QUIZ TIMEOUT=10 QTY=20 The command line instructions above will cause the program to end after 10 minutes of play have elapsed or 20 random questions have been attempted, whichever comes first. The remainder of the command line options are listed below in ALPHABETICAL order: ------------------------------------------------------------ QUIZ CONFIRM For those student of yours who are heavy handed, or all thumbs, you can give them the opportunity to change their answer/response to a quiz by adding the command line parameter "CONFIRM". After the student selects/inputs his response, a confirmation window will appear asking the student if he is sure that he wants to accept his response, with an option to return to the question and choose/input a different answer. After the student has confirmed his response, his response will be judged "Correct" or "Wrong". QUIZ DISPLAY filename.QZ The above command line instructions force Create A Quiz into a continuous loop using "filename.QZ". When a player is prompted for his name, the program will insist that the user input his FULL name, AND address, city, state, zip and phone number before they can participate in the quiz specified by "filename.QZ". This "DISPLAY" command line instruction (with .QZ file) turns Create A Quiz into an excellent sales or promotional tool for businesses and organizations. For example, a company that specializes in selling and installing home water filters can create a "WATER.QZ" file that presents several questions that tests a prospective client's knowledge of tap water, chlorine, heavy metals, cost comparisons, etc. If Create A Quiz has been started with the "WATER.QZ DISPLAY" command line instructions, then WATER.QZ will be presented to each client that approaches the company's computer display. Each user's name and address are stored in a file called "USER.LST". The "USER.LST" file can later be retrieved and used to print out mailing labels or possible client list. Should you wonder how to stop Create A Quiz from looping into eternity in the "DISPLAY" mode, enter "GOODBYE" when the input window prompts for a user's full name. Of course you could reboot your computer, but that's not very graceful... QUIZ ENFORCE QTY=15 The command line parameter "ENFORCE" when used with "STOPAT=" or "STARTAT=" or "QTY=" parameters will prevent a student from exiting the program/quiz until the specified range or quantity of questions have been attempted. QUIZ FIBCHAR=x The way Create A Quiz determines whether a question is a multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank type is by use of the underscore "_" character. If an "_" appears in a question (anywhere) then that question is assumed to be a multiple-choice type question. However, there are times where you would prefer to have a different character determine this, therefore use the FIBCHAR=x command line parameter where "x" is replaced with the actual single character that will determine whether a question is fill-in-the-blank or not. QUIZ LOGFILE=xxxx The command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx will save ALL questions and choices presented to the student, AND the student's response. Replace "xxxx" with a legal DOS file name. Included in this log file will be the student's name, quiz name, date, time, and a summary of attempts, correct responses, etc. QUIZ LOG1ST The command line parameter LOG1ST is used in conjunction with the QUIZ.WHO file (see advanced features section). LOG1ST will cause the student input prompt window to appear only once EVER. If the student attempts a second quiz on another day, there will be no expanded input prompts to greet them (asking for address, city, phone, whatever...). How does the program know whether the student is using the program for the first time? Because when LOG1ST is used, it will automatically delete the QUIZ.WHO file if it exists. Since the QUIZ.WHO is used to determine what input prompts are displayed, if it does not exist, then no expanded prompts will appear. So in review, LOG1ST with a QUIZ.WHO file will cause an expanded player input field window to display the first time the student uses a quiz. The program will then automatically delete the QUIZ.WHO file, which means any future uses of the program will NOT display an expanded player input prompt window. QUIZ LPT=filename This parameter allows you to redirect printouts of quizzes (from the editor) to an ASCII disk file by using the command line parameter LPT=filename. Replace "filename" with a legal DOS file name. QUIZ NAME=xxxx This parameter allows you to pass the name of a single student/user to Create A Quiz. By passing this value the "Please enter your name:" prompt will not appear when a student selects a quiz. Example: QUIZ NAME=MIKE If the name you are using consists of more than one name, then use an underscore character "_" to connect each name (example: QUIZ NAME=MIKE_R._JONES). QUIZ NODOC This parameter is only valid with the STUDENT'S EDITION of Create A Quiz. This will prevent access to the on-screen documentation file (what you are currently reading). QUIZ NODUPES The command line instruction above when used in conjunction with random question mode will insure that no duplicating questions will be given to the student. In other words, each question presented to the student will appear only once (i.e., no duplicates). QUIZ NOEDIT * Not currently available The NOEDIT command line parameter will remove the "Create" and "Edit" selections from the Main Menu in the Teacher's Edition. This is used when you want to prevent students from accessing or tampering with your quizzes. QUIZ NOOPTS This command line parameter will suppress/withhold the "Play Options Menu". This will prevent the student from changing the question order, printout, or repeat errors options. You canNOT currently combine the NOOPTS and RESTRICT (see above) parameters, since some form of introductory menu will always be necessary. QUIZ NOPCT The teacher can customize what appears on the top status line with the command line parameters "NOPCT" or "NOSTATS". The former will display the following: ┌─────────────────────── WHO'S WHO ────────────────────────┐ │ Name: James Attempts: 4 Left: 3 │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ If you wish to suppress all of the status line use "NOSTATS" and you will instead have the following header: ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ WHO'S WHO - LESSON 1 - FAMOUS MEN │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ QUIZ NOQS Adding the command line parameter "NOQS" will turn off the familiar ? ¿ wallpaper symbols that appear on the screen. QUIZ NOREVIEW When a student takes a quiz in which a multiple-choice question is presented, the student has to select from a list of possible correct answers. If the student picks the wrong answer, the message "xyz IS INCORRECT!" At this point the student may still not know the correct answer. Also at this point an instruction prompt at the bottom of the screen offers the student to reveal the answer (or review the choices) by pressing the [R] key. Should the teacher wish to withhold this prompt, and prevent the student from discovering the correct answer he missed, add the NOREVIEW parameter on the command line when starting Create A Quiz. QUIZ NOSCORE If you DON'T want your students' progress or scores recorded via the scoreboard, add "NOSCORE" to the command line. QUIZ PLAYERS=1 If you would like to skip over the "How many students are participating?:" prompt when your users begin using a quiz (particularly when ONLY ONE USER would ever be taking your quiz), then specify the number of participants on the command line with "PLAYERS=x" where "x" is replaced with actual number of participants. QUIZ QTY=x The above "QTY=" command line option can be used to force Create A Quiz to stop and return to DOS after "x" number of random questions have been attempted by the student. You can replace the "x" with any positive number that you wish. For example, "QUIZ QTY=20". QUIZ REFNOTES The parameter REFNOTES will AUTOMATICALLY display any EXTENDED LENGTH reference notes that are associated with a question during play after the student has entered their answer. Any reference notes will be displayed in a full- screen window for easier reading. If REFNOTES is not used (default), then the student taking a quiz will have to press the [D] key to manually display any extended length reference notes. QUIZ RESTRICT filename.QZ The additional word "RESTRICT" on the command line will prevent the student/user from reaching the "Main Menu". This is useful if you have given the program disk to a student and have created a batch file to force the student to use a particular quiz, but you do not want the student to gain access to the "Main Menu" where he may be able to change your questions or answers, or peek and cheat. QUIZ SCOREALL The student taking a quiz will be allowed to determine whether they want their scores recorded to the scoreboard when they are finished. If the teacher wishes to eliminate this option, forcing the student's score to be compared to the top 10 scoreboard instead, then add the SCOREALL paramenter. Although SCOREALL will not guarantee that your student's score will be added to the top 10, it will guarantee that the student's score will be compared with the current scoreboard. If you want to guarantee that your student's score is recorded to the scoreboard, then delete the *.SCB scoreboard file before taking the quiz. By deleting the appropriate *.SCB scoreboard file, your student's score will definitely be recorded in the scoreboard since there will be no other scores to compete against. QUIZ SCORELOG=ON Since the scoreboard only records the top 10 high scores, there may be times when your student/user obtains a score worth knowing about and yet falls short of making it into the "top ten" scoreboard. To maintain a record log of your user's scores (regardless of the score), use the "SCORELOG=ON" parameter. This will cause Create A Quiz to maintain a file with all user's scores, along with date and quiz used. The file generated will be straight ASCII text and will automatically be named "SCORE.LOG". QUIZ SCRAMBLE When taking a multiple choice quiz, you will notice that the "pick list" of possible answer choices appears exactly in the same order as the answers were entered by the teacher when first creating that question. In other words, if a multiple choice question exists where... Question: How much is 1 + 1? Answer: 2 Answer: 4 Answer: 6 Answer: 8 Answer: 11 ...when your student is presented this question within a quiz on the screen, the order of answers "2,4,6,8,11" will be identical to the order in which the teacher entered them. If, however, you would like to see the order of answers SCRAMBLED up, then add the "SCRAMBLE" command line parameter when starting QUIZ. The scramble that will occur will vary from moment to moment, so that if a question was to reappear twice, the order of answers would be different from the first appearance. QUIZ STARTAT=10 STOPAT=20 The above combination of "STARTAT=" and "STOPAT=" commands instruct Create A Quiz to start at a specific question number and to display subsequent questions sequentially (10, 11, 12,...19, 20). Once the number designated by "STOPAT=" is reached, the program will exit to DOS. If you use "STARTAT=" without a "STOPAT=" statement, Create A Quiz will still proceed with questions sequentially until the very last question is reach, and then will terminate. QUIZ SURVEY Create A Quiz can be transformed into "Create A Survey", with the command line parameter "SURVEY". What this parameter does is turn off all scoring (no score header, no scoreboard), and records all responses from the student during a quiz in an ASCII file "RECORD.LOG". The student's name, the quiz, the date and time, in addition to all the responses to the questions are maintained in the RECORD.LOG file on the default disk. There are no right or wrong answer messages displayed when "SURVEY" is used. QUIZ TIMEOUT=x The above "TIMEOUT=" command line option can be used to force Create A Quiz to stop and return to DOS after "x" number of minutes have elapsed since the first question was attempted by the student. You can replace the "x" with any positive number that you wish. For instance, "QUIZ TIMEOUT=5" will cause the program to end after 5 minutes of play have elapsed. QUIZ 4AGRADE If you as a teacher would like to grade your students' knowledge of a quiz but do not want them to know how they scored, then use the command line parameter "4AGRADE". This command will instruct Create A Quiz to 1) suppress the "Correct" or "Wrong" result window; 2) suppress the status header from displaying "Correct:" and "Percent:". The teacher will find the student's answers/repsonses in a file called "RECORD.LOG" and their scores in the "SCORE.LOG" file. ------------------------------------------------------------ With all the above command line parameters now available, it can get very crowded at the DOS prompt when you try to create a custom environment for your students. To eliminate the lengthy DOS command line startup, the user can now create a QUIZ.CFG file and enter the parameters into that file rather than type the parameters at the DOS prompt. Here's an example... Instead of typing... QUIZ TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1 SCRAMBLE ...at the DOS prompt you can create an ASCII file, and on line #1 of the QUIZ.CFG file place just the following text: TESTME.QZ NODUPES STARTAT=1 SCRAMBLE Next time when you start the program (just type QUIZ) the QUIZ.CFG will be looked for, and if it exists, the first line will be loaded and the parameters used. If you wish to ENCRYPT your QUIZ.CFG file, to prevent users from modifying your setup, you can accomplish this by starting the Teacher's version with the following command line: QUIZ ENCRYPT QUIZ.CFG The above command will automatically invoke Create A Quiz and instruct it to take the existing QUIZ.CFG file and rewrite it to disk as a READ-ONLY, ENCRYPTED QUIZ.CFG file (with CRC verification), and then exit the program. The next time you type "QUIZ", the encrypted QUIZ.CFG file will then be used. If you attempt to delete an encrypted QUIZ.CFG file, you will be unsucessful, since it is READ-ONLY. You must reset the file attribute with DOS' ATTRIB -R QUIZ.CFG command. Once reset, you can then delete the QUIZ.CFG and create a new one.